The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1887-10-01
TEMPER.
From the Eortniqhtlu Rerielc.

From. the Fortnightly Rerielc.
The admixture of different tempers
among the brothers and sisters of the same
family is a notable fact due to various
causes which act in different directions.
It is best to consider them before we pro-
coed to collect evidence and attempt its in
depreciation. 1t is clear enough, and may
be taken for granted, that the tempers OF
progenitors do not readily blend in the of
spring, but that some of the children take
mainly after one of them, some after anoth-
err, but with few threads, as it were, is
various ancestral tempers woven in, which
occasionally manifest themselves. If no
other influences interviewed, the tempers
of the children in the same family would
on this account be almost as varied as those
of their ancestors, who married at haphaz-
ard, so far as their tempers were concerned;
therefore the numbers of good or bad chill
dren in families would be regulated by the
same laws of chance that apply to gam
bling table. But there are other infuen-
ces to be considered. There is we'll
known tendency to family likeness among
brothers and sisters which is not due to the
blending of ancestral peculiarities, but to
the prepotence of one of the progenltors,
who has stamped more than his fair share
of qualities upon the children. 1t may
also be due to familiar occurrence that
deserves but has not yet received dlstlne-
tive name-namcly, where all the children
are alike and yet their common likeness
can not be traced to their progenitors. A
new variety has come into existence through
a process not of individuals, but of "cotra-
ternal" variation. The most strongly mark
ed family type that have personally met
with first arose simultaneously in the three
brothers of family who transmitted their
peculiarities with unusual tenacity to numer-
GUS descendants through at least two gen
erations. Other influences act in antagon-
ism to the foregoing, they are the events OF
domestic life, which instead of assimilatins
tempers tend to accentuate slight differen-
ces in them. Thus if some members of
family are little submissive by nature,
others who are naturally Il little domineer-
ing are tempted to become more SO. Then
the acquired habit of dictation in these
reacts upon the others and makes them
still more submissive In the collection l
made of histories of twins who were closely
alike, the statement was constantly met
with that one of the twins was guided by
the other. suppose that after their many
childish struggles for supremacy, each IL
nally discovered his own relative strength
of character, and thenceforth the stronger
developed into the leader, while the weaker
contentedly subsidized into the position of
being led. Again, it is sometimes observed
that member of an easygoing family dis
covers that he or she may exercise consid-
cradle power by adopting the habit of being
persistently disagreeable whenever he or
she does not get the first and best of every
thing. Some wives try to tyrannize over
husbands who are mild and sensitive, who
hate family scenes and dread the disgrace
attending them by holding themselves in
readiness to fly into a passion whenever
their wishes are withstood. They thus ac-
quire habit of breaking out, /" to use a
term familiar to the warders of female
prisons and lunatic asylums, and though
their relatives and connections would de-
scribe their tempers by severe epithets, yet
if they had married masterful husbands
their characters might have developed
more favorably.